The University of Johannesburg Student Finance Department hosted one of its annual Campus Activation Campaigns on Friday 12th of May 2017 from 08:30 to 15:30 at Soweto Campus.

The campaign’s objective was to raise awareness about the possible ways that can assist students to be able to settle their 2017 fees as some students are still working to meet their end of April dateline.

“We are just making the students aware and provide them with assistance to aid them to settle their fees,” said Melton Markgraaff, a financial officer at APK.

A number of financial institutions were present at the campaign in order to offer financial funding options for students to choose from, which ranged from loans to bursaries.

“Most of the students are on self-funding, very few students are on bursaries. Which is why we are trying to get external sponsors to fund students,” Markgraaff said.

In terms of the banks, ABSA and FNB were present to propagate information concerning their products.

ReadytoWork is a division of ABSA with an ABSA program trying to acquaint students with the working environment and equip them with work, people and entrepreneurial skills.

The program has an online course free of charge through which all of these skills can be acquired and at the end, one is given a credited certificate for employment.

“The certificate is equivalent to a matric certificate and is going to help you when you are applying for a job and a learnership,” said Mawethu Tisane, a senior facilitator from ABSA.

FNB student account offers low bank charges, transparency when it comes to one’s transactions, a monthly maintenance/account fees of R4.95, all of which the FNB sales consultant mentioned is helpful to save money.

“One thing we are trying to do is save you money. That’s why we advise students to get cash from PnP, Shoprite . . . cheaper and easier. Use digital platforms like online banking . . . it’s quick and easy,” the FNB consultant added.

“So in that regard, I think that’s where we come in terms of assisting students when it comes to their finances, how we can make life easy for them financially.” emphasized the consultant.

Students’ attitude towards the campaign was that of hope as to having some sort of financial sponsor which will eventually aid to pay their fees.

“So obviously, us coming here and getting all the information that we didn’t know about from the start is useful because now you know that there are companies going to UJ looking to give students bursaries,” Malebo Moloto a third-year BCom General student.